European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Background: Diarrhoeal diseases which are one of the leading reasons behind global
mortality and morbidity is more threatening for infants and young children. Childhood
diarrhoea is becoming increasingly prevalent disease in developing countries like India.
Moreover, it is a major cause of malnutrition that contributes towards third major cause of
under 5 mortalities. This has raised a serious concern in the domain of public health.
Objective: The present study attempts to identify the prevalence of acute diarrhoeal diseases
in children below 5 years of age in Indian settings.
Methods: This community-based, cross-sectional epidemiological and single-center study
conducted in the rural field practice area attached to Department of Community Medicine of
Topiwala National Medical College, Mumbai, and Maharashtra, India from March 2017 to
February 2018 was aimed to identify the prevalence of acute diarrhoeal diseases in children
below 5 years of age in Indian settings. Ethics approval was obtained from Ethics Committee
for Academic Research Projects (ECARP). Research tools included a pre-structured
questionnaire. Baseline information of study area was taken from the Primary Health Centre.
Data was entered in Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to perform analysis.
Results: In our study, a total of 370 living children aged <12–59 months were included in the
analysis. Most of the children who belonged to in Class III socioeconomic status (61.4%),
affiliated to joint family (54.6%), belonged to Hindu religion (94.6%). Only 9.2% of mothers
were illiterate whereas remaining 91.8% mothers had completed at least primary education.
The prevalence of diarrhoea in children under 5 years of age was recorded as 20.5%.
Conclusion: The present study contributed to providing the prevalence of acute diarrhoeal
diseases in children below 5 years of age in Indian settings